Friday, August 31, 2012

On Thursday we went to Long Hill Gardens to pick up our vegetables from the Food Project (a CSA). We also stopped at "Fields of Flowers" where my daughter picked a great bouquet. This was one of the best shots. I cropped it and opened in Painter where I used color overlays to simplify the background, posterized it, and then cropped it to get this composition.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Yesterday, heading home from the gym, I noticed some ferns growing in the shade in a little wooded area near the parking lot. I stopped to take a few pictures. I liked the patterns and the dappled light. Tonight I cropped this image out of one of the photos and used Painter to create a digital woodcut.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

This is a laptop sleeve that I designed on Zazzle.com using the stone spiral image that I posted here earlier this summer (June 6th). I recently ordered one as a gift and it arrived today, so I took a picture. Although this is a laptop sleeve (for an Macbook Air 11"), I ordered it to use for an iPad and a portable keyboard, and I am happy to say that they fit inside the little sleeve.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

This image began with a family photo, one of my favorites, of my father serenading his sisters (four out of five of them). The scene is a rooftop in New York, probably Brooklyn. I don't know who took the original picture, but it might be my dad's other sister, or maybe his brother. And that's the family dog, Queenie. I already had a digital version of this photo, so today I used iPhoto to clean up some of the scratches and marks, as well as to straighten and crop. I saved a copy at that point, to have a clean photo for the family. Then I opened the image in Painter and used some color overlays and digital pastel to add some color. When I had what I wanted, I added posterizing effect, working with selection tools to get the effect where I wanted it. I did all this today because my dad was born on August 28th, and I am still celebrating that he was my dad. While I worked on this, I thought about my dad, how he could pick up any instrument and start playing by ear, how he could whistle, and how it would be so like him to drop a knee and serenade his sisters, just for fun.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Here's another photo that I took this weekend at Bradley Palmer State Park. We had planned to visit the Willowdale Estate but it was closed for a private event. (We will try again soon because we want to see the butterfly gardens). But we were already there so we took the dog for a walk. We often stop at Bradley Palmer State Park, but this area is unfamiliar. We saw this raised wooden footpath so we climbed on and started walking. The path borders the marsh so you can see the wetlands up close. At some points, you are right over the water, so the path becomes a little footbridge. This is one of the many photos that I took. I liked this view for the lillypads on the dark water, the dappled light, and the straight diagonals of the wooden railing.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Here's another photo from yesterday's adventure at Bradley Palmer State Park, same general location but a different view. We planned to see the gardens at the Willowdale Estate, but had to take a raincheck due to a private event. Instead, we found a long wooden "boardwalk" path by the side of the water. This is another photo taken from that path. The water is so dark that at first it is hard to tell whether you are looking at water or at the reflections in the trees. Tonight I used iPhoto to crop the original version to get this composition.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Today the plan was to stop at Bradley Palmer State Park and see the butterfly gardens at Willowdale Estates. But there was a private event going on there, so that idea had to be scrapped, post-poned for another time. Instead, we explored a nearby raised wooden path along the water. This was a part of the park I had never seen before, very beautiful and a wonderful surprise. There were lots of scenes that I would like to paint and I took a lot of photos with my iPhone camera. This one is my favorite, a view from the wooden walkway at a point where there was a little break in the branches and this scene seemed to suddenly appear. The foliage was so thick and the water was so dark that at first it was hard to tell the reflection from the trees. Tonight when I got the image into my computer, I could see some dead branches that were in just the wrong place for the composition, so I used some digital pruning in Painter to neaten them up just a bit.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Yesterday's image was a photo of purple eggplant in an orange bin, from a set of photos that I took at The Food Project (our local CSA). Tonight I opened the image in Painter 12, did a little digital cleanup, and posterized it. Still love the color combination! This might make a nice image for our food blog . . .

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Today we went to Long Hill Gardens to pick up our vegetables from The Food Project (a CSA--which stands for community supported agriculture.) I took a lot of pictures, as usual, but as we were loading up the car, more vegetables were being brought out, in bright colored bins. So I took some pictures. I loved the color combination of purple eggplant in an orange bin, with the sage green in the leaves and stems. Tonight I used iPhoto to cropped the original image to get this composition. But the color is exactly as it came out of my iPhone camera.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

This is a photograph that I took at Obear Park here in Beverly, MA, earlier this summer (July 11th). It was about ten minutes to 8, and the sun was setting. Most of the pictures I took were of the sunset, but this one is a different way of looking at the sunset. I turned away from the sunset enough to get this picture of the fading light on the shore. Tonight I did a little cleanup and cropping in iPhoto.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Last night I posted a piece of digital art that I made with Painter's pattern pen, using the pattern I made from my photo of a front seat bouquet. Actually, that image was my second try. I wasn't happy with the first try; although I liked the composition, I didn't like the color combination. Tonight, I was looking at that discarded image and realized that I just needed to change some of the colors with color overlays in Painter. So that is what I did, and here it is.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Yesterday I used Painter to create a pattern from a photo of a bouquet that was in the front seat of my car. (See the post from yesterday and the day before.) Tonight I decided to see how the pattern would work for a digital print. (This is something that I came up with on my own; I call the result digital prints because the process and the resulting images kind of remind me of mono printing.) Here's how it goes: I start a new image in Painter and pick a background color. Then the pattern pen as a marker and set the brush size as large as possible. In this case, I used the pattern I created last night. Then I make some strokes, trying to control where things go and to move in straight lines. This is the hard part. Then I posterize the result and sometimes add color overlays too. I thought this pattern might be tricky to use because of the combination of geometric lines and floral images, and I was right. I ended up using some color overlay to make the background color darker and make the composition more harmonious.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

This image began with the picture that I posted here yesterday, a photo of a little bouquet -- taken in the front seat of my car. I had altered the original photo in Painter, using digital pastel to simplify the background and then applied Painter's woodcut effect. I thought that it might make an interesting pattern because of the diagonal lines and strong contrasts. So tonight I captured the pattern in Painter. Then I filled a new image with the pattern, using the Paint Bucket tool. I set the offset at 50% and the scale at 33%. Then I cropped the result to get a symmetrical image.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Thursday was pickup day at the Food Project (Community Supported Agriculture) over at Long Hill Gardens. Just like last week, we walked over to see "Fields of Flowers" where I took pictures, the dog sat in the shade, and my daughter picked a bouquet. We had lots of vegetables in the car again, so just like last week, the bouquet rode in my front seat cupholder on the drive home. So of course I took a picture of it. Tonight I used Painter's digital pastel to transform the car interior into abstract shapes. Then I posterized the image, and finally applied the digital woodcut effect.

Friday, August 17, 2012

I went to the studio this morning and worked for an hour on this collage. The idea of making a chicken out of patterned paper came to me while I was admiring some real live chickens with beautiful feathers. Although the idea came suddenly, carrying it out has been slow going. But I am getting there. Today I filled in the neck with more white triangles, and then used smaller triangles to outline the head. (I am figuring this out as I go; there is no predetermined plan.) Since the last time I worked on this, I have been trying to figure out what to do about the tail. There are some gaps where the cardboard shows through, and they are very tiny and hard to fill. I have been resisting the temptation to grab a fineline felt-tip pen and fill in the gaps, maybe even in red. But today what I decided to do is to fill in the gaps I can and leave the rest, using the cardboard as part of the pattern. So I cut tiny pieces, only big enough to have one polka dot, and fit them into the larger gaps. Anything bigger won't fit, and anything smaller is too small to handle! It was getting too hot in the studio, and I needed to stop anyway, but I was happy because I had figured out what to do about the tail and will continue with that next time. Meanwhile, I am thinking about how I want to finish the chicken's head. I begin to believe I may actually finish this project!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Yesterday's post was a photo of a dramatic sunset with an electric blue sky and hot pink clouds. Tonight I am posting another sunset scene, also taken at Obear Park here in Beverly, MA, but the colors and mood are very different. This was from a series of photos that I took last Sunday (August 12). This photo was taken around 7:40, and you can see the red sun sinking behind the trees. This image is exactly as it came out of my iPhone camera.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Here is another photo from the set that I took back on August 7th, watching the sunset from Obear Park, here in Beverly, MA. The sky was changing every few minutes, and there was a beautiful view in all directions. So I kept taking pictures with my iPhone camera. This photo was taken around nine minutes past 8 PM. Tonight I used iPhoto to straighten the image, and lightened the shadows just a tiny bit. Apart from that, I left the image as I found it, including the colors.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

After a busy day filled with items on my to-do list, I used the Brushes app on my iPhone to create this little digital design, just for fun. And it was! I cropped it a bit in iPhoto to make the design a bit more symmetrical. Even though I did this just for fun, I might find some practical uses for it on Zazzle.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Yesterday around 7PM, we had a rainstorm while the sun was shining. (I always love that combination. It reminds me of Colorado and the light is beautiful.) The storm ended quickly, and there was a rainbow against the clouds, so I took a few quick pictures. I thought about taking out the electric wires, etc., but then realized that I like the juxtaposition of rainbow and power lines, so I decided to leave it as it is.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Yesterday's post was a digitally modified and photo of a little bouquet. The flowers were in the cupholder of my car, so I used Painter's digital pastel to cover up the dashboard, the phone charger, etc., and then posterized the image. While I was at it, I made a second version of the image and applied Painter's woodcut effect. I also cropped it just a tiny bit more.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

On Thursday we went to Long Hill Gardens to pick up our veggies from the Food Project CSA (community supported agriculture). You can also pick your own cut flowers in a field right next to the Food Project. So on the way home, I had bags of vegetables in the back seat (and the dog), and my daughter's flowers in my cup holder. It was a very festive ride to back to her house. When I parked the car, the flowers looked great in the sunlight, so I took a few quick photos. Of course, I ended up getting a lot of the car interior, dashboard, the phone charger, etc. So tonight I opened this image in Painter and used digital pastel to simplify the background. The result was a little rough, but I still like it. Then I used this image to create a digital woodcut, which I plan to post here tomorrow.

Friday, August 10, 2012

One more photo taken during a recent evening walk at Obear Park, here in Beverly, MA. The sky kept changing and I kept taking pictures. Tonight I used iPhoto's retouch tool to take out a distraction in the distance (maybe a microwave tower?). I straightened and cropped the image to keep all the lines from radiating out from dead center. I also brought the shadows up just a little bit, but I didn't do a thing to those crazy pink colors.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Here's another photograph that I took at sunset, night before last. This was at Obear Park here in Beverly, MA, one of the few places in town where you can look west and see the sun setting over water. The shapes and colors in the sky and water were very interesting! Tonight I edited this image in iPhoto. I had to adjust the exposure and contrast to take the highlights down a bit, especially on the right side of the image. I also lightened the shadows a bit and then cropped the original image to get this composition.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Last night we took the dog to Obear Park here in Beverly, MA, for a little stroll after dinner. We go in the evening because dogs are allowed in the park after 7:30. The sunsets are a bonus due to western views over the water from OBear Park. We got there shortly after eight, and the light was amazing. The sky looked like a painting, with big strokes of blue and pink, so I took a picture. Tonight i did a little editing in iPhoto, just brought the shadows up a bit and cropped the original image to get this composition. The sky was changing quickly, so I took more pictures. . . .

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

I took a break today and created this simple pendant with just four beads. I thought the incised black bead would look good with the red and textured silver metallic beads. I used a cotton cord and put this together with just two knots and no findings (metal clasps, etc.). It looks casual enough to wear with jeans and t-shirt, but I think it would also work with a simple dress.

Monday, August 06, 2012

The image that I posted yesterday was a digital pattern created in Painter from my pen and ink drawing of some leaves (posted here August 4, 2012). Last night I also tried applying Painter's posterizing effect to the same image, and I liked the result. Posterizing emphasizes and simplifies shapes and colors. In this case, the subtle shadow and light of the drawing paper became a second pattern. This was accidental, but I really liked the result.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Last night I posted a little black and white drawing of some leaves. Tonight I opened the image in Painter and "captured" it as a pattern. Then I used the paint bucket tool to fill this new image with the pattern. On a whim, I decided to see what would happen if I posterized this image. It was surprising, and I will post it here tomorrow.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

This morning I was admiring some leaves that I saw growing at the side of a path. I really liked the shape of the leaves and the pattern that they made on the branches. I was in a hurry and didn't take a picture. And I don't know what kind of tree it was. But this afternoon, I decided to try to sketch the leaves, so I grabbed a Sharpie and a sketchbook and started to draw based on what I remembered. This composition is my second attempt, ink on paper. Of course, by the time I realized I was using a dark blue Sharpie instead of black, I had drawn too much and didn't want to start over. But when I got the image into my computer, I used iPhoto to transform it into black and white. Then I opened the image in Painter 12, and cleaned up a few mistakes with digital pastel. (I have been doing pen and ink drawing since high school, and what I wouldn't have given back then to be able to correct my mistakes with a computer before I turned in my work!) Finally, I applied Painter's woodcut effect just to make the lines show up a little better.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Today I made this little digital painting on my iPhone using the Brushes app. I created a blue background and then used two different patterns with a lot of hot colors to get this design. This was fun to do, and I might try to make something with this image on Zazzle.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Here's one more peaceful image from our recent sunset walk at Obear Park here in Beverly, MA. I did some cropping and just a touch of digital retouching in Painter 12 to make this image even more peaceful than the original photo, which had few power lines in the background and some stray weeds and sticks in the foreground. It's a bit of a bother over a photo, I guess. But I want this image to communicate the sense of peace I felt looking at this scene.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Here's another image taken from Obear Park at sunset (two days ago). This is a waterfront park here in Beverly, MA. It has a western view over the water (unusual here in Eastern Massachusetts). They say you can't look directly at the sun, but apparently my iPhone camera doesn't know that. Tonight I used iPhoto to crop the original version and get this composition.